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Groundbreaking Study Says That Being Popular In High School Doesn't Lead To Long Term Happiness

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ABC News- Although high school students may think popularity is of the utmost importance, a new study found that it may not lead to long-term happiness. What mattered more, according to the study published in the journal Child Development, is whether the teens had close friendships they maintained over time. “Youth with higher levels of attachment to their best friends appear to have better psychological health, psychosocial adjustment, and even a more adaptive stress response during adolescence,” the study authors said. “In general, adolescents with high-quality close friendships report higher rates of overall happiness than those without.” The study looked a group of students from the same school over time, to study the correlation between adolescent friendships and long-term mental health. Researchers at the University of Virginia began following the 169 high school students from diverse racial and economic backgrounds from the age of 15, over a 10-year period through young adulthood. They asked questions and conducted in-depth interviews to assess their feelings about their own social anxiety, social acceptance, self-worth and symptoms of depression.

Okay before we get started here I’d just like to point to a 50 Cent lyric from 2003 from the critically-acclaimed smash hit “Wanksta”

Damn homie,
In high school you was the man homie
What the fuck happened to you

That was from 2003! And this study just came out in 2017. Why were we wasting time and money on a study that we already knew the answer to? Curtis Jackson had this locked down a decade and a half ago. Not to mention everybody already knew this information. We didn’t need a study to tell us that the popular kids in high school end up being the burn outs and losers later in life. Almost every Judd Apatow show or movie points to this being true. The jocks end up becoming alcoholics or tiny little men with frail egos and the people who were shunned in high school (AKA the nerds) become the cool people later in life cause they have a brain and actual skills. Done and done. I just came to those conclusions with a little help from my favorite hip hop album of all time and one of the greatest comedy minds of this generation. I didn’t need a stupid study. A perfect example of this is that I was a cool football player in high school and now I go to John Mayer concerts alone. That’s really all the evidence you need.